After a few days of misery, I am slowly coming back to life. But I’m still rather confused on what to do next and I have a million ideas floating around in my head. I’m hoping that meeting the gynecologist on Friday will help.

I’m not expecting her to have a clear answer on why the FET didn’t work though. I actually don’t think she can know herself. It could have been chromosomal issues, due to the bad egg and sperm quality, but also my hormonal levels, which are a complete mess and hard to manage. It could also be that we didn’t check my thyroid enough.

I have thought of a few things to discuss:

Take metformin to improve egg quality. I know some other PCOS bloggers do this, but I have not managed to find much information. I have no idea how long you have to take this for, what exactly it is used for, etc.

Ovarian drilling. This may be a bit drastic, but it could help get better eggs and maybe also get me to have a cycle again (now completely absent). This could eventually also be good for a frozen embryo transfer and generally to get my body back to a more normal and manageable hormonal status.

In-Vitro Maturation (IVM): I only heard about this recently and don’t know enough about it yet. It’s apparently a good technique for PCOS. I think it’s basically like IVF, except the eggs are retrieved earlier and left to mature in the lab. It helps make sure that they all reach a good enough maturation level. Normally with PCOS you have lots of eggs at different stages of maturation.

Endometrial biopsy/scratch: do an endometrial biopsy to check whether I have killer cells and eventually try with local injury of endometrium to see if it helps implantation. Again, another thing I don’t know enough about.

Assisted hatching: this would be a painless thing that the biologist takes care of. Maybe the embryos are just indecisive and need a little encouragement. Assisted hatching means the biologist makes a hole in the layer around the embryo to help implantation. Not sure how much this helps.

Only do frozen cycles: since my body is a hormonal mess, it looks like it may be easier to manage my hormones better if I take a break after the stimulations and egg retrieval.

Better check hormones during treatments: I heard that some people have checks during the TWW and before the transfer to verify that the progesterone levels are ok and that the thyroid is doing well. Maybe that could help.

Any ideas? If anyone has any information, has tried any of these techniques or has websites to direct me to, I’ll be really grateful! Thanks!!

16 Responses to Prepping for WTF appointment

Ovarian drilling sounds painful but has also gotten my interest. I’ve had assisted hatching done and I guess it doesn’t hurt right. But if it’s an egg, sperm, or lining issue it isn’t going to make much of a difference. I also like the idea of frozen cycles only. I read somewhere that they only do frozen transfers in Japan because our bodies need a chance to heal and get back to normal. What I heard was the results are better. Sorry, no references on that. Is it possible to have they embryos genetically tested before transfer? This might give some useful information.

It is no fun because the side effects are nausea and diarrhea. However, it has helped me lose weight and get my hormones on track. When I was strict on diet and exercise before I still couldn’t lose weight. The metformin let my body recognize the insulin I was producing. I lost 15 lbs the first month I was on it.

I just had a biopsy done, so I might be able to give more personal input on the issue in a couple weeks once I know more about the results. It seems like it could be a good option in order to look for inflammatory markers and to attempt to imporve implantation rates.

Evelyn has an interesting point about genetic testing on embryos and if it’s available here? I’ve tried to look into this a little, but wasn’t able to find very much information on what the requirements are to have access to this type of testing in France.